Mark Haddon (Author of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time) edit data Mark Haddon is a British novelist and poet, best known for his 2003 novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time. He was educated at Uppingham School and Merton College, Oxford, where he studied English. In 2003, Haddon won the Whitbread Book of the Year Award and in 2004, the Commonwealth Writers' Prize Overall Best First Book for his novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, a book which is written from the perspective of a boy with Aspergers syndrome. Haddon's knowledge of Aspergers syndrome, a type of autism, comes from his work with autistic people as a young man. In an interview at Powells.com, Haddon claimed that this was the first book that he wrote intentionally for an adult audience; he was surprised when Mark Haddon is a British novelist and poet, best known for his 2003 novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time. He was educated at Uppingham School and Merton College, Oxford, where he studied English.

In 2003, Haddon won the Whitbread Book of the Year Award and in 2004, the Commonwealth Writers' Prize Overall Best First Book for his novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, a book which is written from the perspective of a boy with Aspergers syndrome. Haddon's knowledge of Aspergers syndrome, a type of autism, comes from his work with autistic people as a young man. In an interview at Powells.com, Haddon claimed that this was the first book that he wrote intentionally for an adult audience; he was surprised when his publisher suggested marketing it to both adult and child audiences. His second adult-novel, A Spot of Bother, was published in September 2006. Mark Haddon is also known for his series of Agent Z books, one of which, Agent Z and the Penguin from Mars, was made into a 1996 Children's BBC sitcom. He also wrote the screenplay for the BBC television adaptation of Raymond Briggs's story Fungus the Bogeyman, screened on BBC1 in 2004. He also wrote the 2007 BBC television drama Coming Down the Mountain.

Haddon is a vegetarian, and enjoys vegetarian cookery. He describes himself as a 'hard-line atheist'. In an interview with The Observer, Haddon said "I am atheist in a very religious mould". His atheism might be inferred from The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time in which the main character declares that those who believe in God are stupid. Mark Haddon lives in Oxford with his wife Dr. Sos Eltis, a Fellow of Brasenose College, Oxford, and their two young sons. ...more Mark Haddon - Literature Literature Biography Mark Haddon was born in Northampton in 1962. He graduated from Oxford University in 1981, returning later to study for an M.Sc. in English Literature at Edinburgh University. He then undertook a variety of jobs, including work with children and adults with mental and physical disabilities. He also worked as an illustrator for magazines and a cartoonist for New Statesman, The Spectator, Private Eye, the Sunday Telegraph and The Guardian (for which he co-wrote a cartoon strip).

His first book for children, Gilbert's Gobstopper, appeared in 1987 and was followed by many other books and picture books for children, many of which he also illustrated. These include the 'Agent Z' series and the 'Baby Dinosaurs' series. From 1996 he also worked on television projects, and created and wrote several episodes for Microsoap, winning two BAFTAs and a Royal Television Society Award for this work. In 2003 his novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, was published and has been hugely successful. It is the first book to have been published simultaneously in two imprints - one for children and one for adults. It has won a string of prestigious awards, including the 2003 Whitbread Book of the Year. His second novel, A Spot of Bother, was published in 2006 and shortlisted for the 2006 Costa Novel Award. His first book of poetry, The Talking Horse and the Sad Girl and the Village Under the Sea, was published in 2005. His latest books are two new novels, Boom!

(2009) and The Red House (2012) and a picture book, Walking on The Moon (2009). Mark Haddon teaches creative writing for the Arvon Foundation and Oxford University. Awards Critical perspective Long before The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time (2003) gave him bestseller status, Mark Haddon - author, poet, cartoonist and abstract painter - wrote the Agent Z series of books. The stories, which are for young teens, are full of the joys of daydreaming. Ben, the narrator, allows his hallucinogenic imagination to transport him beyond the dreary boundaries of the suburban street where he lives. With his friends Barney and Jenks he forms The Crane Grove Gang, which is dedicated to terrorising people through carefully planned practical jokes. As Agent Z, the identity they adopt, they leave stickers at the scene of their crimes as a mark of their triumphs. The books play on the human need to transcend the limits of reality. In one way or another, much of Haddon’s work is about our saving grace as a species: our capacity to wonder and invent.

It is also about the way we seek consolation and meaning in that capacity, particularly when the curtain has been pulled back to reveal that God is none other than the Wizard of Oz. The publication of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time (2003) brought Haddon critical applause, commercial benefit, and awards. It’s not hard to see why. It stands with D.B.C. Pierre’s Vernon God Little and Lionel Shriver’s We Need To Talk About Kevin as one of the most memorable novels of the last decade (strangely enough all three were published in the same year). It’s narrated by Christopher Boone, a fifteen-year-old boy who possesses what Ian McEwan described as an ‘emotionally dissociated mind’ (the back-cover blurb says that Christopher has Asperger’s Syndrome, though there is no reference to that in the book itself). Christopher, who lives with his father in Swindon, tells us all we need to know about how his mind works without the need to attach a label to his forehead.

If he sees four consecutive yellow cars it’s a ‘Black Day.’ Five red cars and it’s a ‘Super Good Day.’ Christopher cannot bear physical contact, and there are times when he feels so overloaded by verbal and visual stimuli that he starts to groan or scream. He is able to calculate complicated factoring problems in his head, but cannot read most facial expressions. His mind is logical and literal, and he dislikes metaphor: ‘when I try and make a picture of the phrase in my head it just confuses me because imagining an apple in someone’s eye doesn’t have anything to do with liking someone a lot and it makes you forget what the person was talking about.’ The conceit of the novel - the title of which comes from a Sherlock Holmes story called Silver Blaze - is that it’s the book that Christopher is writing as a school project after discovering his neighbour’s dog dead in the garden. It’s a detective story - the only kind of fiction Christopher likes - and one that takes him not only beyond the world he has known, but also to discoveries of secrets his family and neighbours have long held from him.

He’s the victim of falsehood and betrayal, and in light of the emotional chaos that surrounds him, his obsession with facts and figures assumes a heroic quality. Haddon followed Christopher’s story with A Spot of Bother (2006). Reminiscent of Sue Townsend’s Mole books and the novels of David Nicholls and Nick Hornby, it’s as easy and enjoyable a read as those comparisons would suggest. Centred on the experience of the retired George, an ordinary fifty-seven-year old man who is now about to begin the long, shapeless period of life that will be given over to pottering about in the shed, A Spot of Bother deals with ‘the fear of having nothing to complain about’. When George discovers a lesion on his hip, his imagination, which has been an underworked muscle for too long, goes finally to work, transforming the mark into a terrible cancerous growth. As the unavoidable reality of his own mortality begins to undermine whatever foundations he thought he had built beneath him, George struggles to maintain his sanity.

The novel moves in and out of the lives and minds of George’s wife, son, and daughter - reading it is like listening to gossip being relayed by someone who knows how to plot real life and how to lighten it all with humour. Haddon has a gift for creating compassion, and is able to make you care about the fate of his characters. Despite the superficially ordinary nature of the plot - husband worries about health, wife has affair, husband and wife’s daughter may or may not get married for the second time to an unsuitable beau, husband and wife’s son may or may not bring gay lover to the wedding - Haddon has a natural feel for the comic treatment of shared experience. This is a story about the messy ordinariness of our lives, lives that revolve not around epic quests of historical significance, but marriages and divorces, love and sex, births and deaths. The novel is particularly sensitive to the effort involved in sustaining even the most intimate of our relationships once romance has become just another thing to work at and compromise over. Haddon’s most recent novel, The Red House (2012), is about an attempt at familial reconciliation.

After the death of their mother, Angela and Richard gather with their respective families in a house on the Welsh border. They have not seen much of one another for two decades. Their experiences of life, and their memories of their childhood, differ. As with A Spot of Bother, the novel moves in and out of the minds of the characters: a boy, three teenagers, and four adults, but it is now in the key of Mrs. Dalloway. Whereas Haddon’s second novel is light comedy, what he attempts with The Red House is a kind of impressionism: Say it began with shadows, that it was shadows always. The sun above us, below us a dark figure that is ourselves and not ourselves. Look how it follows me, see how we dance in time. Narcissus, all of us, right from the beginning. Trace your hand on the rock wall of this cave, using flint, using charcoal. Now the ghost of you will live on after you have gone. Although there are moments when this sort of thing convinces, often the author gets carried away, reaching for poetic aptness of the kind that leaves Christopher Boone in confusion.

Despite Haddon’s skill at scene making and drama, despite his natural ability to get inside the head of a character, there are, in a story about the way the ghosts of our past fight for the possession of our present, too many ghosts fighting for possession of the narrative. Not so The Sea of Tranquillity (1996), one of the most beautiful of the several picture books that Haddon has written, and, at 32 pages, as brief as it is tender and impressionistic. A man looks back at his childhood obsession with space, recalling the sense of wonder and awe he felt at the moon landing, as he watched Aldrin and Armstrong ‘bouncing slowly through the dust.’ The story ends with the adult musing upon how he can still lose himself to views of the moon and thoughts of how ‘nothing ever moves year after year.’ In a Mark Haddon story, there is usually a looking back and a looking up.

Garan Holcombe, 2013 SparkNotes: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time: Context The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time Mark Haddon Table of Contents Plot Overview Mark Haddon was born in Northampton, England, in 1962. He graduated from Merton College, Oxford, in 1981, and later returned to his studies at Edinburgh University, where he received a Master’s degree in English Literature. After school, Haddon took a number of odd jobs, including one working with children who had physical and mental disabilities, including autism. He also worked as an illustrator and cartoonist, contributing to a number of prominent British publications. In 1987, Haddon published his first book, Gilbert’s Gobstopper, about a piece of candy that, over the course of fifty years, gets bounced around the world until it returns to Gilbert, the boy that dropped it (he is an old man by the time it returns). Haddon followed with more than a dozen works for children over the years, many of which he also illustrated, and became involved in writing for children’s television.

For the British children’s show, Microsoap, in particular, Haddon won multiple awards, including the Royal Television Society’s honor for Best Children’s Drama. In 2003, Haddon published The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, his first foray into adult fiction. The book follows Christopher John Francis Boone, a young boy whose symptoms and behavior suggest he has a mild form of autism, perhaps Asperger’s Syndrome. The book came out in England in two imprints, one aimed at young adults, and one at adults, though no differences separate the two editions other than a slight change in the cover artwork. Haddon’s novel immediately won fans in each group, quickly selling more than a million copies in both markets, in no small part because of the unique voice of its narrator. The book earned critical acclaim as well, receiving praise from outlets like the New York Times and from noted authors including Ian McEwan. To date, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time has been published in more than thirty-five countries and has become an international best seller. In the United Kingdom, Haddon’s book has sold more than 2.6 million copies, making it the third best-selling book of the decade.

Had The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time come out ten years earlier, it might have had a difficult time finding grown-up readers. In the early 1990s, few novels about young protagonists found success with adults. But the immense popularity of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books, and to a lesser degree Phillip Pullman’s “His Dark Materials” series, both of which featured young protagonists coming of age against the backdrop of a dramatic storyline, helped change the way audiences received stories about young adults. Both series achieved popular as well as critical success, with Rowling’s books in particular becoming some of the biggest sellers of all time. Even though Rowling and Pullman wrote their books for younger audiences, while Haddon wrote his for adults, Haddon’s novel found the same kind of crossover appeal. Reflecting this success across age groups are the numerous awards the book has won, which include the Whitbread Book of the Year Award, the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize, and the Booktrust Teenage Prize. Despite his work with autistic children, Haddon staunchly asserts that he is not an authority on autism and claims to have done very little research on the subject before writing the novel.

In an interview with Powell’s Books, Haddon said that when he worked with autistic children, “autism wasn't a term that was even used much at the time, and only in retrospect do I realize that some of the people I worked with had autism, although they had it much more seriously than Christopher does.” Although the novel never mentions autism, Christopher, the novel’s protagonist, displays several of the symptoms that characterize the disorder, such as difficulty reading facial expressions, preoccupation with certain topics, and behaviors like rocking back and forth. Additionally, many of the press releases put out by the publisher, as well as the packaging of certain editions of the book, describe Christopher as autistic. The autistic community has criticized the book for offering an inaccurate depiction of the condition. Haddon, however, says he intended his book only as a work of fiction and not a medical treatise on living with autism.

Mark Haddon: Quotes, Life and Work, Bibliography, and a List of Books by Author Mark Haddon Quotes more ï¿½ ï¿½ less "As a kid, I didn't read a great deal of fiction, and I've forgotten most of what I did read.""At 20, 25, 30, we begin to realise that the possibilities of escape are getting fewer. We have jobs, children, partners, debts. This is the part of us to which literary fiction speaks.""B is for bestseller.""Bore children, and they stop reading. There's no room for self-indulgence or showing off or setting the scene.""Children simply don't make the distinction; a book is either good or bad. And some of the books they think are good are very, very bad indeed.""Every life is narrow. Our only escape is not to run away, but to learn to love the people we are and the world in which we find ourselves.""For me, disability is a way of getting some extremity, some kind of very difficult situation, that throws an interesting light on people.""From a good book, I want to be taken to the very edge.

I want a glimpse into that outer darkness.""I am atheist in a very religious mould. I'm always asking myself the big questions. Where did we come from? Is there a meaning to all of this? When I find myself in church, I edit the hymns as I sing them.""I better make the plot good. I wanted to make it grip people on the first page and have a big turning point in the middle, as there is, and construct the whole thing like a roller coaster ride.""I don't mean that literary fiction is better than genre fiction, On the contrary; novels can perform two functions and most perform only one.""I don't remember deciding to become a writer. You decide to become a dentist or a postman. For me, writing is like being gay. You finally admit that this is who you are, you come out and hope that no one runs away.""I knew there was a story; once you find a dog with a fork through it, you know there's a story there.""I started writing books for children because I could illustrate them myself and because, in my innocence, I thought they'd be easier.""I think most writers feel like they're on the outside looking in much of the time.

All of us feel, to a certain extent, alienated from the stuff going on around us.""I think the U.K. is too small to write about from within it and still make it seem foreign and exotic and interesting.""I was born too late for steam trains and a lazy eye meant I'd never be an astronaut.""I've worked in television long enough to know that when you stop enjoying that type of thing you go home and do something else.""I've written 16 children's books and five unpublished novels. Some of the latter were breathtakingly bad.""If kids like a picture book, they're going to read it at least 50 times. Read anything that often, and even minor imperfections start to feel like gravel in the bed.""If one book's done this well, you want to write another one that does just as well. There's that horror of the second novel that doesn't match up.""If you enjoy math and you write novels, it's very rare that you'll get a chance to put your math into a novel. I leapt at the chance.""Jane Austen was writing about boring people with desperately limited lives.

We forget this because we've seen too many of her books on screen.""Most adults, unlike most children, understand the difference between a book that will hold them spellbound for a rainy Sunday afternoon and a book that will put them in touch with a part of themselves they didn't even know existed.""Most of my work consisted of crossing out. Crossing out was the secret of all good writing.""My book has a very simple surface, but there are layers of irony and paradox all the way through it.""No one wants to know how clever you are. They don't want an insight into your mind, thrilling as it might be. They want an insight into their own.""Reading is a conversation. All books talk. But a good book listens as well.""Science and literature give me answers. And they ask me questions I will never be able to answer.""That's important to me, to find the extraordinary inside the ordinary.""The one thing you have to do if you write a book is put yourself in someone else's shoes. The reader's shoes. You've got to entertain them.""There's something with the physical size of America...

American writers can write about America and it can still feel like a foreign country.""Use your imagination, and you'll see that even the most narrow, humdrum lives are infinite in scope if you examine them with enough care.""When I was writing for children, I was writing genre fiction. It was like making a good chair. It needed four legs of the same length, it had to be the right height and it had to be comfortable.""Writing for children is bloody difficult; books for children are as complex as their adult counterparts, and they should therefore be accorded the same respect.""Young readers have to be entertained. No child reads fiction because they think it's going to make them a better person." Life and Work more ï¿½ ï¿½ less Haddon was born in 1962 in Northampton and educated at Uppingham School and Merton College, Oxford, where he studied English. In 2003, Haddon won the Whitbread Book of the Year Award and in 2004, the Commonwealth Writers' Prize Overall Best First Book for his novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, a book which is written from the perspective of a boy with Asperger syndrome.

However, Haddon has stated on his website that he knows "very little about the subject", and that he "slightly regret[s]" that the term "Asperger syndrome" appeared on the cover of his book. Moreover, he had done no research about autism before writing the novel. Rather, he recommends that one read works by people who have Asperger syndrome themselves. In an interview at Powells.com, Haddon claimed that this was the first book that he wrote intentionally for an adult audience; he was surprised when his publisher suggested marketing it to both adult and child audiences. His second adult novel, A Spot of Bother, was published in September 2006. Mark Haddon is also known for his series of Agent Z books, one of which, Agent Z and the Penguin from Mars, was made into a 1996 Children's BBC sitcom. He also wrote the screenplay for the BBC television adaptation of Raymond Briggs's story Fungus the Bogeyman, screened on BBC1 in 2004. In 2007 he wrote the BBC television drama Coming Down the Mountain. Haddon is a vegetarian, and enjoys vegetarian cookery. He describes himself as a 'hard-line atheist'.

In an interview with The Observer, Haddon said "I am atheist in a very religious mould". His atheism might be inferred from The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time in which the main character declares that those who believe in God are stupid. In 2009, he donated the short story The Island to Oxfam's 'Ox-Tales' project, four collections of UK stories written by 38 authors. Haddon's story was published in the 'Fire' collection. Mark Haddon lives in Oxford with his wife Dr. Sos Eltis, a Fellow of Brasenose College, Oxford, and their two young sons.

Toni and the Tomato Soup (1988) A Narrow Escape for Princess Sharon (1989) Agent Z Meets the Masked Crusader (1993) Titch Johnson, Almost World Champion (1993) Agent Z Goes Wild (1994) At Home The Real Porky Phillips (1994) Agent Z and the Penguin from Mars (1995) The Sea of Tranquility (1996) Secret Agent Handbook Agent Z and the Killer Bananas (2001) Ocean Star Express (2001) The Ice Bear's Cave (2002) Boom! (2009) The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time (2003) A Spot of Bother (2006) Poetry 5 Reasons To See The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night Time By Emily Hardy on 5th March 2016 in Features , Reviews , West End 0 The cast of The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night Time We recently paid a visit to the National Theatre’s production of The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time at the Gielgud Theatre.

Here are our top 5 reasons to see this remarkable piece of theatre:- 1) The test of time To withstand the test of time in London’s West End is no mean feat – particularly during a recession. As with The National Theatre’s runaway success War Horse, the enduring popularity of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time came to many as a surprise; not because it wasn’t worthy of sell-out shows and five star reviews – far from it – but simply because in 2012, when Curious Incident premiered at the Cottesloe Theatre, times were particularly tough for everyone. Since then Curious Incident has been unstoppable, receiving seven Olivier Awards and taking home Best New Play at the 2013 Whatsonstage Awards. Even when part of the Apollo Theatre collapsed during a performance in December 2013, Curious Incident dusted itself off and re-opened six months later at the Gielgud Theatre, where it has continued to play to packed houses. It’s made a splash across the pond too.

The Broadway production debuted at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre in October 2014 and, in 2015, Curious Incident won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Play, the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding New Broadway Play, the Drama League Award for Outstanding Production of a Broadway or Off-Broadway Play, and five Tony Awards, including Best Play. Of course, awards and popularity may not be reason enough to sway your decision, but for any curious consumer of theatre, it’s a good place start. Matthew ~Trvannion, Sion Dan Young and Pearl Mackie. Photo: Brinkhogff Mogenberg 2) The noblest of narratives Based on the best-selling, award-winning novel by Mark Haddon and adapted for stage by Simon Stephens, the story of Christopher Boone – who simply describes himself as “someone who has Behavioural Problems” – is one of great pertinence and value. Since Haddon’s novel was published in 2003, Asperger Syndrome and other special educational needs and disabilities (although let’s not waste time with labels) have received deeper exploration and fairer representation in the media.

I’d like to believe we’ve come a long way – even since the play opened in 2012 – in unravelling some of the many misconceptions, myths and stigmas, and that in general there’s a better understanding and an improved attitude towards learning disabilities. For this reason Christopher’s advanced mathematical ability, his creative imagination or his avoidance of strangers and physical contact, may not come as a huge surprise to some 2016 audience members. That’s not to say the play’s value has diminished, or that ignorance no longer exists. Sadly, we’ve still got a long way to go, and there’ll always be something to be gained from telling Christopher Boone’s story. In actuality, Curious Incident isn’t really about Christopher or his Asperges; it’s about his mother Judy and his father Ed, Swindon, Sherlock Holmes, reading and railways. Extending beyond Christopher’s combination of eccentricities, the rich narrative explores themes of divorce, death, intimacy, family and community; its characters, each with their idiosyncrasies and difficulties, making their catastrophic errors, demonstrate human frailty and that which makes every one of us perfectly unique.

The cast of The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night Time 3) The magic of simplicity It’s true that since the opening of Curious Incident ambitious theatre-makers have tirelessly scaled the parameters of what is and what is not possible on-stage. Each bigger and bolder than the last, companies such as PunchDrunk, Headlong and 1927 have embraced technology and art to stun unsuspecting audiences. But Curious Incident, while no longer unique in it’s incorporation of video projection, magical lighting and inventive movement direction, still stands apart from the competition. And that’s down to simplicity, the unquestionable ability of ten actors playing multiple parts and, conversely, a lack of set that blows the story wide open. 4) Two extremes and everything in-between There are few scenes in British theatre history as tense as Christopher’s impromptu adventure into the London underground. In a desperate attempt to solve the mystery of the letters he unearthed in his father’s room, Christopher runs away from his home in Swindon in search of Kensal Rise. In doing so, he unknowingly puts himself in great danger and at the mercy of London’s typically unhelpful commuters.

Likewise, rarely have there been theatrical moments as euphoric and peaceful as when Christopher imagines journeying into space, or when he finds safety in mathematics. His reverie is brought to life by the seamless physical work of the ensemble cast and the illustrations projected onto the white grid that comes to represent the inner workings of Christopher’s mind. Curious Incident therefore asks a lot of its audience members; expect to experience the full spectrum of emotions and to never for one moment feel complacent or, worse still, bored. Jacqueline Clarke and Sion Dan Young in The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night Time. Photo: Brinkhoff Mogenberg 5) … and a surprise worth waiting for Unwilling to spoil it you, all I’ll say about reason number 5 is this: if you’re not usually a fan of animals on stage – as I frequently claim not to be – be prepared to reconsider. Far from a cheap, comical ploy, this particular four-legged cameo makes for a very welcome addition to an already beautifully evocative play. NB: No animals were harmed in the making of this production.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time Front cover of first edition 59267481 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is a 2003 mystery novel by British writer Mark Haddon . Its title quotes the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes in Arthur Conan Doyle ‘s 1892 short story “ Silver Blaze “. Haddon and The Curious Incident won the Whitbread Book Awards for Best Novel and Book of the Year, [1] the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best First Book, [2] and the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize . [3] Unusually, it was published simultaneously in separate editions for adults and children. [4] The novel is narrated in the first-person perspective by Christopher John Francis Boone, a 15-year-old boy who describes himself as “a mathematician with some behavioural difficulties” living in Swindon , Wiltshire. Although Christopher’s condition is not stated, the book’s blurb refers to Asperger syndrome , high-functioning autism , or savant syndrome .

In July 2009, Haddon wrote on his blog that “Curious Incident is not a book about Asperger’s….if anything it’s a novel about difference, about being an outsider, about seeing the world in a surprising and revealing way. The book is not specifically about any specific disorder,” and that he, Haddon, is not an expert on autism spectrum disorder or Asperger syndrome. [5] The book is dedicated to Sos Eltis , Haddon’s wife, with thanks to Kathryn Heyman , Clare Alexander, Kate Shaw and Dave Cohen. The book uses prime numbers to number the chapters, rather than the conventional successive numbers. Contents 7 External links Plot Christopher, a fifteen-year-old boy with an autism spectrum condition, lives with his father, who has told him that his mother, Judy, died two years ago. The boy discovers the dead body of the neighbour’s dog, Wellington, speared by a garden fork. Mrs Shears, the dog’s owner, calls the police, and Christopher comes under suspicion. When a policeman touches him, he hits the policeman, and is arrested, then released with a police caution .

He decides to investigate the dog’s death, despite his father’s orders to stay out of other people’s business. He is severely limited by his fears and difficulties when interpreting the world around him. Throughout his adventures, Christopher records his experiences in a book, which he calls a “murder mystery novel”. During his investigation, Christopher meets people whom he has never before encountered, even though they live on the same street, including the elderly Mrs Alexander, who informs Christopher that his mother had an affair with Mr Shears and had been with him for a long time. Christopher’s father, Ed, discovers the book and confiscates it after a brief fight with the boy. While searching for the confiscated book, Christopher uncovers a trove of letters which his mother wrote to him, dated after her supposed death, which his father has also hidden. He is so shocked by his father lying about his mother’s death that he is unable to move, curls up on the bed, vomits and groans for several hours until his father returns home. Ed realizes that Christopher has read the letters and cleans him up.

He then confesses that he had indeed lied about Judy’s death and also that it was he who killed Wellington, stating that it was a mistake resulting from his anger after a heated argument with Mrs Shears. Christopher, having lost all trust in his father and fearing that Ed might try to kill him since he had already killed the dog, decides to live with his mother and runs away. He remembers his mother’s address from the letters and embarks on an adventurous trip to London, where his mother lives with Mr Shears. After a long and event-filled journey, evading policemen and feeling ill from the overwhelmingly large amount of information and stimuli from the trains and crowds around him, he finally finds his way to his mother and Mr Shears’s home, and waits outside until they arrive. Judy is delighted that Christopher has come to her; she is upset that Ed told Christopher that she was dead. Mr Shears does not want Christopher living with them and never did. Very soon after arriving, Christopher wants to return to Swindon in order to take his mathematics A-level . His mother leaves Mr Shears, their relationship having broken down because of their conflict about Christopher and Mr Shears’s rejection of Christopher.

Judy then moves into a rented room in Swindon. After an argument with Ed, she agrees to let Ed meet Christopher for daily brief visits. Christopher remains terrified of his father and makes repeated attempts to prevent him from talking. He hopes Ed will be imprisoned for killing Wellington, although his mother explains that for this to happen, Mrs Shears would have to press charges. The story ends with Ed getting Christopher a Golden Retriever puppy, whom Christopher gets to name, and promising that he will rebuild trust with Christopher slowly, “no matter how long it takes”. Christopher asserts that he will take further A-level exams and attend university. He completes his first mathematics A-level with top grades despite having eaten and slept very little. Earlier in the story he talks about wanting to become an astronaut, but at the end he declares that his goal is to become a scientist. The book ends with Christopher optimistic about his future, having solved the mystery of the murdered dog, gone to London on his own, found his mother, written a book about his adventures, and achieved an A* in his A-level maths exam. Characters Christopher John Francis Boone The 15-year-old protagonist and narrator of the novel, who investigates the murder of Mrs Shears’ large black poodle.

Ed Boone Christopher’s father, a boiler engineer. Prior to the beginning of the story, he has been living with Christopher as a single parent for two years. Judy Boone Christopher’s mother. Early in the book, Christopher writes that she died of a heart attack two years before the book’s events. Siobhan Christopher’s paraprofessional and mentor at school. She teaches him how society works and how to behave within its complex guidelines. Roger Shears One of the neighbours who lived near the Boones, but who has left his wife before the story begins. Eileen Shears Mr Shears’s wife, who attempts to console Ed for a time after Christopher learns of his mother’s death. Mrs Alexander An old lady, who is one of Christopher’s neighbours, who offers information to help Christopher’s investigation regarding his parents and Mr and Mrs Shears. Rhodri Christopher’s pet rat. Wellington Mrs Shears’ large black poodle, which Christopher finds dead in her garden, with a garden fork sticking out of him.

Themes Social disability In a June 2003 interview with NPR ‘s Terry Gross on her program Fresh Air , Haddon said about Christopher, “If he were diagnosed, he would be diagnosed as having Asperger’s syndrome, which is a form of autism. I suppose you’d call it high-function autism in that he can function on, you know, a day-to-day basis, in a kind of rudimentary way. But he has a serious difficulty with life in that he really doesn’t empathize with other human beings. He can’t read their faces. He can’t put himself in their shoes.

And he can’t understand anything more than the literal meaning of whatever’s said to him, although I’m very careful in the book not to actually use the word ‘Asperger’s’ or ‘autism.’ … Because I don’t want him to be labelled, and because, as with most people who have a disability, I don’t think it’s necessarily the most important thing about him… And as a good friend of mine said after reading the book, a friend who is himself a mathematician, it’s not a novel about a boy who has Asperger’s syndrome; it’s a novel about a young mathematician who has some strange behavioural problems. And I think that’s right.” [6] Haddon added, in the conversation with Terry Gross, “I have to say honestly that I did more research about the London Underground and the inside of Swindon Railway Station, where some of the novel takes place, than I did about Asperger’s syndrome.

I gave him kind of nine or 10 rules that he would live his life by, and then I didn’t read any more about Asperger’s because I think there is no typical person who has Asperger’s syndrome, and they’re as large and diverse a group of people as any other group in society. And the important thing is that I did a lot of imagining, that I did a lot of putting myself into his shoes in trying to make him come alive as a human being rather than getting him right, whatever that might mean.” Haddon states on his website that, although he had read “a handful of newspaper and magazine articles about, or by, people with Asperger’s and autism” in preparation for writing the book, he knows “very little” about Asperger’s syndrome and that Christopher Boone is inspired by two different people. According to Haddon, none of these people can be labelled as having a disability. Haddon added that he “slightly regret[s]” that the term Asperger’s syndrome appeared on the cover of his novel.

[5] In 2010, in an interview with The Independent , he was described as “now thoroughly irritated that the word Asperger’s appeared on subsequent editions of the novel, because now everyone imagines that he is an expert and he keeps getting phone calls asking him to appear at lectures.” [7] In a critical essay on the novel, Vivienne Muller quotes some praise by experts on disability theory : “In its presentation of Christopher’s everyday experiences of the society in which he lives, the narrative offers a rich canvas of experiences for an ethnographic study of this particular cognitive condition, and one which places a positive spin on the syndrome. The reader in this instance acts as ethnographer, invited to see what Mark Osteen claims is a ‘quality in autistic lives that is valuable in and of itself’ (cited in [S.] Adams 2005, p.1).

Along similar lines, [Alex] McClimens writes that Haddon’s novel is ‘an ethnographic delight’ and that ‘Haddon’s achievement is to have written a novel that turns on the central character’s difference without making that difference a stigmatising characteristic’ (2005, p.24).” Muller adds that the novel “works with a strong sense of the disabled speaking subject, drawing readers into Christopher’s cognitive/corporeal space through an incremental layering of his perspectives and reactions… The narrative also bristles with diagrams, maps, drawings, stories, texts that inform Christopher’s lexicon for mapping meaning in a world of bewildering signs and sounds.” She also admires such elements as “the digressive stream-of-connectedness-and-disconnectedness way in which Christopher writes and thinks; the obsessive focus on minutiae; his musings about why animals behave the way they do; his quasi philosophizing on death and life and the afterlife; his ambition to be an astronaut…” [8] In a survey of children’s books which “teach about emotional life,” Laura Jana wrote, “On the one hand, this is a story of how an undeniably quirky teenage boy clings to order, deals with a

 family crisis, and tries to make sense of the world as he sees it.

But it also provides profound insight into a disorder—autism—that leaves those who have it struggling to perceive even the most basic of human emotions. In so doing, The Curious Incident leaves its readers with a greater appreciation of their own ability to feel, express, and interpret emotions. This mainstream literary success made its way to the top of the New York Times bestseller list for fiction at the same time it was being touted by experts in Asperger’s syndrome and autism-spectrum disorder as an unrivaled fictional depiction of the inner workings of an autistic teenage boy.” [9] Metaphor Christopher often comments on his inability to appreciate some metaphors and similes. He gives as an example a quote that he found in “a proper novel”: “I am veined with iron, with silver and with streaks of common mud. I cannot contract into the firm fist which those clench who do not depend on stimulus.” Haddon told Terry Gross, “Funnily enough, it’s actually a quote from Virginia Woolf. It’s Virginia Woolf on an off day, in the middle, I think, of The Waves .

An author whom I love actually, but who sometimes got a little too carried away.” [6] Reception Awards The book was joint winner of the 2004 Boeke Prize , won the 2003 Whitbread Book of the Year award and sold more than two million copies. [7] Haddon also was one of the winners of the 2004 Alex Awards , which “honor the 10 top adult books with appeal for adolescents.” [10] As well as winning the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize, Haddon earned the Book Trust teenage fiction award.

[4] [11] The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time was also long-listed for the Man Booker Prize , and “many observers were surprised that it did not advance to the shortlist.” John Carey , chairman of the Booker panel of judges, told The Guardian, “We have several clashes of opinion among the judges but I found Haddon’s book about a boy with Asperger’s syndrome breathtaking.” [11] Critical reaction A survey in Great Britain, conducted by the BBC ‘s literacy campaign for World Book Day , found Curious Incident to be among “the top five happy endings, as voted on by readers” in novels (the others were Pride and Prejudice , To Kill a Mockingbird , Jane Eyre and Rebecca , the last of which Curious outranked). [12] School Library Journal praised it as a “rich and poignant novel.” [13] The San Jose Mercury News said, “Haddon does something audacious here, and he does it superbly. He shows us the way consciousness orders the world, even when the world doesn’t want to be ordered,” adding that “the great achievement of this novel is that it transcends its obvious cleverness.

It’s more than an exercise in narrative ingenuity. Filled with humor and pain, it verges on profundity in its examination of those things—customs, habits, language, symbols, daily routines, etc.—that simultaneously unite and separate human beings.” [14] A reviewer for The Christian Century described it as “an absorbing, plausible book”: “The reader becomes absorbed not only in the mystery of a murdered dog and a missing mom, but also in the mysterious world of an autistic child.” [15] A reviewer for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution wrote that the story is “a touching evolution, one that Haddon scripts with tenderness and care… a unique window into the mind of a boy who thinks a little differently, but like many kids his age, doesn’t quite know how to feel.” [16] Professor Roger Soder called it “visceral” and a “delightful story,” declaring, “All of us in our Spokane Book Club are special education professionals and so have considerable experience with kids with this disability, and we found the story believable.” [17] Medical professionals’ reviews Dr.

Alex McClimens, whom Muller quoted above, also wrote, “This magnificent essay in communication is compulsory reading for anyone with the slightest interest in autistic spectrum disorders. This book is also required reading for those who simply enjoy a fascinating story… we are offered a first person narrative to match anything by contemporary writers. Mark Haddon has created a true literary character and his handling of the teenage Asperger’s heroic adventure is brilliantly crafted. He uses the literal mind-set of his hero to mask the true direction of the plot.” [18] Reviewer Paul Moorehead calls the book “a fairly ripping adventure story” and writes, “It’s also quite a feat of writing. The actual use of language is somewhat austere—an unavoidable consequence of having a boy with autism as a narrator—but it has its own beauty, and it works. So persuasive and so effective is the construction of Christopher, not only is he a character you’re rooting for, he’s also the character in the story you understand the best.

It’s startling how believably and comfortably this story puts you into what you might have thought were likely to be some pretty alien shoes.” [19] Reviewer David Ellis, naming Curious Incident an “ambitious and innovative novel,” wrote that Haddon “manages to avoid the opposing pitfalls of either offending people with autism and their families or turning Christopher into an object of pity. Instead of becoming the focus of the plot, the autism enhances it. The unemotional descriptions amplify many moments of observational comedy, and misfortunes are made extremely poignantly.” He concludes that Christopher’s story is “far more enjoyable and likely to stay with you for far longer than any medical textbook.” [20] Texas community reactions The novel was selected as a recommended book for the 2006 Galveston Reads program, a literacy encouragement program in Galveston County, Texas . Kimball Brizendine, the Mayor of Friendswood , issued a proclamation declaring “Galveston County Reads Day” and encouraging “all citizens, teens to seniors” to read the novel.

Five days later, he retracted the statement, declaring that it was “not [his] intention to endorse this readership [sic] for our younger readers.” The journal American Libraries reported, “City Council member Chris Peden went a step further, asserting to the January 28 Galveston County Daily News that while he hadn’t read Curious Incident in its entirety, he had noted that the ‘F word’ appeared on page four and that ‘later in the book, the [lead character] says there is no God and there is no life after death. Clearly, these are not ideas we should promote to kids’.” [21] In August, 2007, some parents in Bryan, Texas , “were appalled to see what their kids were reading” and protested the inclusion of the book in high school libraries, with one parent claiming that Curious Incident and another book ( Catalyst by Laurie Halse Anderson ) were “unsuitable for not just some but all high school students.” [22] Adaptations Stage A stage adaptation , by Simon Stephens and directed by Marianne Elliott , [23] premiered at the National Theatre on 2 August 2012.

[24] It starred Luke Treadaway as Christopher, Nicola Walker as his mother Judy, Paul Ritter as his father Ed, Una Stubbs as Mrs Alexander and Niamh Cusack as Siobhan. [25] The production, which ran until late October 2012, was broadcast live to cinemas worldwide on 6 September 2012 through the National Theatre Live programme. [26] The show transferred to the Apollo Theatre in Shaftesbury Avenue, London, from March 2013. On 19 December 2013, during a performance of The Curious Incident at the Apollo, parts of the ceiling fell down injuring around 80 of the over 700 patrons inside. [27] The production re-opened at the Gielgud Theatre on 24 June 2013.

[28] The new West End cast is led by Sion Daniel Young as Christopher Boone, with Rebecca Lacey as Siobhan, Nicolas Tennant as Ed, Mary Stockley as Judy, Jacqueline Clarke as Mrs Alexander, Indra Ové as Mrs Shears, Stephen Beckett as Roger Shears, Matthew Trevannion as Mr Thompson, Pearl Mackie as No. 40/Punk Girl, Sean McKenzie as Reverend Peters and Kaffe Keating plays alternate Christopher. They are joined by Mark Rawlings, Penelope McGhie, Naomi Said and Simon Victor. [29] An adaptation and translation into Spanish by María Renée Prudencio played at the Teatro de los Insurgentes in Mexico City in June 2014. The character of Christopher was played by Luis Gerardo Méndez and by Alfonso Dosal on alternate days. An Israeli adaptation (translation into Hebrew by Daniel Efrat) has been staged at the Beit Lessin Theater in Tel Aviv since March 2014, starring Nadav Netz as Christopher. Netz won the Best Actor category at the 2015 Israeli Theater Awards for the role.

[30] Film The film rights for the novel were optioned by Brad Grey and Brad Pitt for Warner Brothers . [31] [32] In 2011 Steve Kloves was attached to write and direct the project, but as of 2015 it has not yet been produced. [33] [34] References

Question: Who wrote the 2003 novel 'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time' later made into a play, winning the best new play award in 2013?
Answer: Mark Haddon